Kyoto: The Finale

I woke the next day to find it raining. By the time I left the hostel, however, the rain had tapered off, leaving the almost unbearable humidity in it's place.

My first destination was a Buddhist temple in the southwest part of the city named Rengeo-in temple. Rengeo-in translates to the mythic sounding, ‘Hall of the Lotus King.’ However, no one knows it by that name. Rather, on all of the maps and guide books – including the pamphlet provided when I purchased a ticket, the temple is called Sanjusangen-do, which translates to ‘Hall with Thirty-Three Spaces Between Columns.’ Not quite as poetic, but perhaps more appropriate for the unremarkable looking building.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Irish couple I was rooming with had conflicting opinions on the temple. Sarah said it was her favorite, while Joe thought it was fairly boring. After seeing it, I am firmly on Sarah’s side. I understand why Joe didn’t care for it, since he was all about the gardens and the wonders of Sanjusangen-do have little to do with it’s gardens. It’s treasures reside inside the temple.

Sanjusangen-do was first built in 1164, but the original building was lost in a fire and was rebuilt in 1266. Inside the temple are 1001 statues of the Buddhist deity, Juichimen-senjusengen Kanzeon, often referred to by the easier to say, 'Thousand Armed Kannon'. I don’t think I can really explain how awesome the sight of all of these statues is. In a room the size of a football field, there’s one gigantic seated statue and 1000 life sized statues of Kannon standing on either side in 10 rows of 50. The large sitting statue and 124 of the standing statues were from the original temple, rescued from the fire. The remaining 876 were made in the 13th century when the temple was renovated. And if this wasn’t quite enough, there are 28 statues of guardian deities from the 13 & 14th centuries lined up in front of the Kannon. The two most famous are Fujin and Raijin, the Wind God and the Thunder God that are placed at either side of the temple hall on raised pedestals of cloud shape. The craftsmanship in all of these statues is truly magnificent. Unfortunately, they don’t allow cameras in the temple, so you’ll just have go there and see it yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

One kind of funny thing happened while I was there. As I was shuffling slowly down the room with all of the other visitors, one man strode by purposefully paying no attention to any of the remarkable sights until he stopped in front of the statue that was labeled the Buddhist deity of musicians. He stood there with his head bowed for several minutes, then walked away without a glance to anything else. Dressed in a sharp business suit and carrying a briefcase, he spent money to do nothing but pray to the deity of musicians. It’s funny.

After I left Sanjusangen-do, I spent some at the Kyoto National Museum across the street. Then I walked a little ways to Chishakuin Temple, a nice temple, but nothing special. Afterwards, I walked back towards the Gion district and bought some takoyaki (octopus dumplings) from the ubiquitous takoyaki street vendors. I spent the rest of the afternoon viewing so many temples, shrines, and gardens – to the point where I was pretty much templed and gardened out. They all start running together, but I will say the gardens of Heian shrine were pretty spectacular. I did some shopping at the Kyoto Handicrafts Hall and finally headed back to the hostel to clean up for the evening.

As I said in my previous post, I had made plans with the Irish couple, Joe & Sarah, to go to an English pub they had heard about, The Bull and Steer. Joining us were Robert, the language student from Missouri, and two girls from California that replaced the French girls in our room the night before. In the category of It’s a Small World After All, these girls, Abbey & Meg, were from Pasadena, California and lived only a few blocks from where I lived when was there. In fact, we decided it was very possible that we had crossed paths before. The fish and chips weren’t quite traditional, but the atmosphere was good and the company was fun. This was my last night in Kyoto and I had a great time.

The next day, I relaxed and finished up a bit of shopping. I had an early lunch at a Chinese restaurant I had seen the day before. I ordered shark fin broth with roasted pork and vegetables and not for the first time did I wish it was a cool, autumn evening. It was so rich, but it was delicious.

I grabbed my bags from the hostel and headed to the train station. It was back to Kumamoto for me. But, I hope I can go back to Kyoto one day. I left a good many things I still want to see.

- Jenny